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A product of Guardian Media Ltd
Contact us
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orin.gordon@guardian.co.tt
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Internet address: www.guardian.co.tt
A22
WEDNESDAY,
MARCH 18,
2015
• Twitter: @GuardianTT • Web: guardian.co.tt
With Israeli voters heading to the
polls yesterday, much ink has been
spilled in the last 24 hours about one
putative sign of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's growing
desperation---his decision to "reverse"
his previously stated support for a
Palestinian state. The "reversal"
narrative is, however, based on a
fundamental misunderstanding of what
Netanyahu has stood for throughout his
public life. In fact, whatever the outcome
of tomorrow's elections, it's important
to dispense with the misguided notion
that Netanyahu has ever been an
honest broker for peace.
His recent machinations regarding US
negotiations with Iran over the latter's
nuclear programme are little more than
an affirmation of a long-standing fact---
Netanyahu has repeatedly over-hyped
and misrepresented the actual state of
the Iranian programme.
In doing so, he has frequently been at
odds with the best estimates of Israeli
intelligence leaders and has resorted to
evermore overblown rhetoric and
political chicanery to try to conceal that
reality. Leaving aside his ill-conceived
Congressional stunt earlier this month, a
just-as-revealing if much lower profile
incident from January merits mention.
When a bipartisan delegation of six US
Senators visited Israel earlier this year,
they were scheduled to have a security
briefing with Israel's Mossad on the
Iranian nuclear programme.
Because the Mossad was going to
deliver a less alarmist and reckless
message than Bibi can countenance, he
actually scuttled the briefing. Only when
Tennessee Republican Bob Corker
threatened to go home, did Netanyahu
relent. The episode is a classic
encapsulation of Bibi's fecklessness. ---
Huffington Post
Sound Off: Bibi Netanyahu---servant of fear
In her Monday night speech to
the United National Congress
party faithful in Aranguez, the
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-
Bissessar again attempted to keep
Opposition Leader Keith Rowley
on the back foot by urging him
to remove Faris Al-Rawi as the
candidate for San Fernando West,
because of what she said was his
inappropriate use of his parlia-
mentary influence. Having
extracted a climbdown from
Rowley on whether Al-Rawi
could remain part of his legal
team, the Prime Minister --- to
borrow a cricket expression again
--- tried to stay on the front foot,
in a pre-election campaign in
which she has so far been the
most effective player on the field.
A little noted part of her speech
was the passage that criticised the
PNM for favouring "big people"
in Trinidadian society in its choice
of candidates. This is an unfortu-
nate turn for the Prime Minister
of Trinidad and Tobago to be tak-
ing, for, unless she was merely
testing a new line of attack, it
signals that the politics of class
could become a part of the cam-
paign strategy of her party.
That s not to say that the poli-
tics of class in an election cam-
paign is new or novel. Barack
Obama and his campaign surro-
gates made much of the wealth
and Cayman Islands held tax
arrangements of Mitt Romney,
right down to the car elevator in
one of the five homes that he
owned. Romney took to wearing
checkered shirts and jeans on the
campaign trail most of the time,
to try to suggest to the average
voter that he was just like them.
He posed awkwardly for photos
with African Americans from the
"hood". He got Fox News, the
pro-conservative news outlet, to
film him in the kitchen of one of
his more modest homes, sur-
rounded by his sons, daughters-
in-law and grandchildren. He
talked about his financial strug-
gles as a young, married student.
In the UK, opposition leader
Ed Miliband is taking heat for
having two kitchens in his Lon-
don home. Miliband leads the
Labour Party, which, as its name
suggests, has its roots in the
working class. Prime minister
David Cameron, a son of Britain s
titled class, is enjoying Mr
Miliband s discomfort.
But Trinidad and Tobago is dif-
ferent --- culturally, historically,
ethnically. In a country in which
the core support of the two main
parties continues to be predomi-
nantly race based, the society can
ill-afford the playing up of more
divisions. The prime minister has
enough of a record to defend her
government on the issues, rather
than differentiate her party by
class. Moreover, despite the UNC
continuing to have a hold in the
rural heartland, both parties have
evolved and grown beyond their
core support and have their share
of "big" and not so big people.
As the debate around campaign
financing makes clear, neither
struggle for the financial support
of the well-to-do.
With the creation of business-
es, jobs and a commercial sector
that is the envy of the rest of the
Caribbean, the "big people" have
done much that is creditable. As
the country looks to lessen its
dependence on petroleum
exports, it s important that the
Prime Minister forms business
partnerships --- more PPP, pub-
lic/private partnerships, than PP.
There is a hard-nosed electoral
logic to the Persad-Bissessar s
apparent strategy. She is rallying
her base. She is trying to estab-
lish an early advantage. But this
line of political attack doesn t
advance the political dialogue or
reduce divisions.
Avoiding the politics of division
The prime minister has enough of a record to defend her government on the issues,
rather than differentiate her party by class. Moreover, despite the UNC continuing to
have a hold in the rural heartland, both parties have evolved and grown beyond their
core support and have their share of "big" and not so big people.